The Russellville Democrat. [volume] (Russellville, Ark.) 1875-1898, 1887-11-16

Sonata" dream ingenious but faulty,
for all melody descends from Heaven, and
only discords ascend from he'll. All
hatreds, feuds, controversies, back
billings and revenges are the devils
sonata, are diabolic fugue, ore de-
moniac phantasy, are grand march OF
doom, are allegro of perdition.
But if in this world things in general
are out of tune to our frail ear. how much
more so to ears angelic and deific. 1t
takes a skilled artist fully to appreciate
disagreement Of sound. Many have no
capacity to detect defect OF musical ex-
eeution. and, though there was In one
bar as many offenses against harmony as
could crowd in between the lower of the
bass and the higher Of tho soprano, 1t
would give them no discomfort, while on
the forehead of the educated artist beads
Of Precipitation would stand ont as re-
suit Of the narrowing dissonance. While
mn amateur was performing on piano
and had just struck the wrong chord,
John Sebastian Bach, the immortal com
poser. entered the room, and the amateur
rose in embarrassment. and Bach rushed
past the host who stepped forward to
greet him, and before the keyboard had
stopped vibrating, put bis adroit hand
upon the keys changed the painful in
harmony into glorious cadence. Then
Bach turned and gave salutation to the
host who had invited him.
But the worst of all discords Is moral
disoord. If society and the world are
plainly discordant to imperfect man.
what must they be TO a perfect GodY
People try TO define what sin Is. II seems
TO me that sin is getting out OF harmony
with God, disagreement with His holt
ness. with His dignity. with His love.with
His commands; our will clashing with His
will, the finite dashing tho infinite, the
frail AGAINST the pnssant, the created
against the Creator. If a thousand mu-
sicians, with flute, and cornet-a-piston.
and trumpet, and violoncello, and haut-
boy, and trombone, and all the wind aud
stringed instruments that ever gathered
IN O Dusseldorf Jubilee should resolve that
they would play out Of tune, and put con :
cord to the rack, and make the place wild
with shrieking, and grating and rasping
sounds, they could not make such pam
demonium as that which RACES In sinful
soul when God listens to the play of its
thoughts. passions and emotions--disc cord,
lifelong discord, n1nddening discord. The
world pays more for discord than it does
for eonsonanee. High prices have been
paid for music. One man gave S225 to
hear the Swedish songstress IN New York,
and another 1925 to hear her in Boston,
and another $3.50 to lear hey ii Pfovi-
dence. Fabulous prices have been paid
for sweet sounds, but far more has been
paid for tliscord. The Crimean war cost
81, 700, 00o. 600. and our American civil war
over $1,000, 100000, one the war debts of
professed Christian nations are about Sl5.-
coo, 100000. The world pays for this red
ticket, which admits it to the saturnalia OF
broken bones, and death agonies, and de-
stroYed cities, and plowed graves, and
crushed hearts, any amount OF money
Satan asks. Discordl Discord.
But / have to tell you that the song that
the morning stars sang together at the
laying of the worlds cornerstone is to be
resumed again. Mozart's greatest over
ture was composed one night when he
was several times oyerpowered with
sleep, and artists say they can tell
the places in the music where he was
falling asleep and the places whore he
awakened. SO the overture of the morn
ing stars, spoken of in my text, has been
asleep, but it will awaken and be more
grandly rendered by the evening stars of
the worlds existence than by the morn
W
than the mathis. The work of all good
mon and women, and Of all good churches,
and all reform associations, is to bring the
race back TO the original harmony. The
rebellious heart TO be attuned, social life
to be attuned, commercial ethics to be at
tuned, internationally to be attuned.
hemispheres to DO attuned. But by what
force and in what way?
In olden times the choristers had tun-
ing.fork with two prongs, and they would
strike it on the back of pew or music-rack,
and put it to the ear, and then start the
tune, and all the other voices would join.
In modern orchestra the leader has q
complete instrument, rightly attuned,
and he sounds that, and all the other per-
formers turn the keys of their in
struments to make them orrespond,
and sound the bow over the string, and
listen, and sound out over again, until all
the keys are screwed TO concert fsitch, and
the discords melt into one great SYM
phony, and the curtain hoists, and the
baton taps, and audiences are raptured
with Schumann's paradise and the
Peri" or Rossinps ''Stabat Mater" or
Bach's "Magnifcat" in D, or Gounod's
Redemption"
Now our world can never be attuned
by an imperfect instrument. Even Gre
mona would not do. Heaven has ordained
the only instrument. and it is made out of
the wood Of the cross, and the voices,
cantatrices of the first Christmas night,
when Heaven serenaded the earth with:
Glory TO God In the highest, and on earth
peace, good will to men,
Lest we start too far Off and get lost in
generalities, we had better begin with
ourselves--get our own hearts and life In
harmony with the eternal Christ. Oh, for
His almighty spirit to attune US, to chord
our life with His life, and bring us into
unison with ali that is pure and self sac
ri6cing and heavenly. The strings of
our nature are all broken aud twisted, and
the bow is SO slack IL can not evoke any
thing melifiuous The instrument ma de
for Heaven 10 play on has been roughly
twanged and struck by influences worldly
and demoniac. master hand OF Christ,
restore this split, and fractured, and de-
spoiled, and nnstrung nature until first 1t
shall wall out tor our sin, and then thrill
with divine pardon
The whole world must also be attuued
by the same power A few days ago
was in the Fairbanks Weighing Scale
Mandatory Of Vermont. Six hundred
hands, and they have never had strike.
Complete harmony between labor and cap
ital, the operatives OF scores Of years in
their beautiful homes near by the man
sons Of the manufacturers whose In
vention and Christian behavior made the
great enterprise. So all the world over
labor and capital will be brought in
euphony.
You may have heard what is called the
"Anvil Chorus.' composed by Verdi, a
tune played by hammers, great and small,
now with mighty stroke, and now
with heavy stroke, beating a great
iron anvil. That 10 what the
world has got 70 come to--anvil
chorus, yard stick chorus, shuttle chorus,
trowel chorus, crowbar chorus, pick axe
chorus, goldmine chorus, rall-track
chorus, locomotive chorus. 1t can be- done,
and il will be done. So all social life will
be attuned by the Gospel harp. There viii